Kerry Hanger Rally
I am dragging butt today after working hard for Kerry Days!
Last night was the rally at the Waterloo Airport. I drug Wisconsin J, my pregnant wife, and Ms. Smith (the ultimate intern) to the airport to help volunteer at 6pm. We stood around for about an hour and ten minutes waiting for the Secret Service to finish their security sweep and get the metal detectors setup to screen the crowd. Once the Service (who is kind of mean and scary, except when they are dancing to techno music) was finished, we got setup. Mrs. IWG and Ms. Smith (the ultimate intern) went with Katherine, the California pediatrician, to be part of the "jump team" responding to any needs that came up. Wisconsin J and I worked the metal detectors letting people know that they needed to take all metal out of their pockets. This was the best place to work because you got to see everyone coming in. The doors opened at 7:30pm and by 9:15pm 3000 people were packed into Hanger #5 waiting for John K.
I have been to a number of political rallies, and I can't imagine that Republican ones are as diverse or fun as Democratic rallies. My favorite thing about the rallies are the unions. They are grizzled, tough looking, and really know their stuff. They are also die-hard supporters. Last night I worked alongside a group of UAW workers from the Waterloo John Deere factories. Great guys, glad to have them on my side if I had to fight.
At any rate, our exciting Volunteer passes allowed us to rush through the crowd and get up close to the stage to see the Senator. Mrs. IWG was very sore and tired by this point in the evening, not having had a chance to sit down. Local candidates did some speaking from 9:30pm until 10:15pm (Christy Vilsack, Bob Kressig, and Jeff Danielson). Kerry finally popped on stage at 10:20 pm or so and talked for about 20 minutes. It was a standard stump speech, but it was the first time I had seen him live and in person.
It took us about 40 minutes to get out of the parking lot at the end of the night, and we finally got into bed about 11:30pm. A great arrival!
I will update later today with the events of this mornings speech on foreign policy and Iraq, complete with some pictures, and the update on whether I got to meet the Senator....
Last night was the rally at the Waterloo Airport. I drug Wisconsin J, my pregnant wife, and Ms. Smith (the ultimate intern) to the airport to help volunteer at 6pm. We stood around for about an hour and ten minutes waiting for the Secret Service to finish their security sweep and get the metal detectors setup to screen the crowd. Once the Service (who is kind of mean and scary, except when they are dancing to techno music) was finished, we got setup. Mrs. IWG and Ms. Smith (the ultimate intern) went with Katherine, the California pediatrician, to be part of the "jump team" responding to any needs that came up. Wisconsin J and I worked the metal detectors letting people know that they needed to take all metal out of their pockets. This was the best place to work because you got to see everyone coming in. The doors opened at 7:30pm and by 9:15pm 3000 people were packed into Hanger #5 waiting for John K.
I have been to a number of political rallies, and I can't imagine that Republican ones are as diverse or fun as Democratic rallies. My favorite thing about the rallies are the unions. They are grizzled, tough looking, and really know their stuff. They are also die-hard supporters. Last night I worked alongside a group of UAW workers from the Waterloo John Deere factories. Great guys, glad to have them on my side if I had to fight.
At any rate, our exciting Volunteer passes allowed us to rush through the crowd and get up close to the stage to see the Senator. Mrs. IWG was very sore and tired by this point in the evening, not having had a chance to sit down. Local candidates did some speaking from 9:30pm until 10:15pm (Christy Vilsack, Bob Kressig, and Jeff Danielson). Kerry finally popped on stage at 10:20 pm or so and talked for about 20 minutes. It was a standard stump speech, but it was the first time I had seen him live and in person.
It took us about 40 minutes to get out of the parking lot at the end of the night, and we finally got into bed about 11:30pm. A great arrival!
I will update later today with the events of this mornings speech on foreign policy and Iraq, complete with some pictures, and the update on whether I got to meet the Senator....
posted by GT at 11:59 AM
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